John GILL

14 July 1916

SILSDEN SOLDIERS IN THE GREAT ATTACK

Life Saved by a Water Bottle

Germans Dazed by British Fire

Two Silsden soldiers have been wounded in the great advance, in the persons of Pte. T.H. Fort, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fort, of Raikes Head Farm, Silsden, and Pte. Cyrus Horn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Horn, of 12, Albert Square, Silsden, and both are attached to the 16th [18th] West Yorkshire Battalion (Bradford Pals).

In a letter to his parents dated July 3rd, Pte. Fort states:–“You will have got the field card by now saying that I have been wounded. There is no cause for alarm, so don’t get uneasy about me. The wound is in the two middle fingers of my left hand caused by a machine gun bullet on Saturday morning last. I am at present in No. 9 General Hospital, Rouen, but am expecting to start for England to-night or in the morning. I think the wound is going on all right, but it aches a good deal. What makes it rather worse is that the bullet went through the middle joint of the long finger, and I cannot move it yet. Cyrus Horn is wounded I know, but I have no idea how Walter Tillotson and John Gill (all Silsden soldiers) and the others went on. As you will have guessed by now, we were in the big advance of last Saturday. Words of mine cannot describe it. Our battalion suffered very severely, but we gained our objective all right. I have lost my kit and everything.”

In a letter of more recent date, Pte. Fort states:–“We left Rouen on the afternoon of July 4th, and arrived at Southampton the following morning from where we entrained for Paddington Station, London, eventually arriving at University College Hospital, London. Crowds of people were waiting at the station to see us come out. We were conveyed in private motors to the hospital, and I felt almost like getting under the seat when people started throwing flowers in the car and cheering us. I am getting a bit used to hospital life now, and it is not bad. My hand is going on all right I think, but it continues to ache and is rather swollen. The nurses and sisters are very good and do their best for you, and we get plenty of good meals. It is quite an experience one goes through after being wounded. First of all we are taken to what is called the First Aid Post, which is usually a well protected place–often a deep dug-out near the firing line–and there the bleeding is stopped and a rough dressing put on. From there we are sent to the Advanced Dressing Station where a proper dressing is put on. This station is usually a mile or so behind. Next we go to the Corps Collecting Station, where all go from the Advanced Dressing Stations, and thence to Clearing Stations, which are in places where men can be easily put on the railway. I was at the 29th Casualty Clearing Station at a village called Geryaincourt [Gézaincourt], two kilos from Doullens, and from there went to the General Hospital at Rouen. I was just over the first German line when I got hit. The trench, or what was left of it, was full of dead Allemandes, and there were also live ones in dug-outs, etc., which we quickly bombed out. They were dazed completely by our terrible bombardment, and had scarcely any fight left in them; indeed, I only saw one of them stand up with his bayonet. In the meantime, however, their machine guns were firing for all they were worth and hit a good many of our chaps. I had got about ten yards towards the second line when I got hit and was forced to stop. I tied the wound up with a handkerchief as best I could, and then the difficulty confronting me was how to get back. The Germans were sending curtain fire of high explosive shells just in front of our line to stop us from bringing reserves up, so I laid in a shell hole for about two hours until the firing slackened a bit and then I made a dash, though expecting every minute being hit with a piece of shrapnel. However, I came through without further injury. I felt when the bullet struck me as if someone had hit me with a stick, also it burnt a bit, and blood spurted all over my clothes and equipment. I was a horrid sight. You must let me know if you hear anything of Walter Tillotson or any of them, as I had not time to look round and see how they fared. I saw Cyrus Horn at the Dressing Station, wounded. Robert Clarkson (a Silsden soldier) heard I had been hit and came to see me at the Dressing Station. He then went to fetch Cousin Charlie [possibly Pte Charles Fort, Regimental No. 18/680], but I had been sent away before they came back.”

Pte. Cyrus Horn, writing to his parents, states:– “Just a few lines to let you know I have got to a Manchester Hospital. We are enjoying ourselves, as we are getting some good food. The wound that I have got is only slight, as I have been able to walk about all the time, and I shall not be long before I am at home to see you all. When I looked round I could not find John Gill, and think he must have been wounded. If you see his wife you can tell her that he is wounded. The ‘fireworks’ were too hot for them to look round, but she will get to hear something after the roll-call was made at night. I have often thought I should like to see a right fight before I was a soldier, but I don’t want to see another one like the one I went through. It was terrible to see the men lying about as we were going ahead. I received my wound about noon on July 1st, but I did not get out of the trenches until about 5 o’clock.”

Mrs. Horn visited her son at the Manchester Hospital on Saturday last and found him very well. She learnt that the captain of his regiment asked for volunteers to form a bombing party to go over the German parapet. Pte. Horn and another private whose home is in Bradford at once volunteered, and along with the captain they set out on their task. The result was that Pte. Horn was wounded by a bullet which shattered his water bottle, and also struck him in his left side. The other soldier who accompanied him received a wound in the head. They are now both now lying in the same hospital. Pte. Horn asserted that but for his water bottle he would probably have lost his life.

28 July 1916

THREE SILSDEN SOLDIERS KILLED

Pte. John Gill, of the 18th West Yorkshire Regiment (2nd Bradford Pals), and who resided at No 4 Highfield Lane, Silsden, has also been killed in action during recent heavy fighting. A short time ago the news of Pte. Gill’s death was reported, and his wife wrote to the War Office to ascertain the accuracy or otherwise of the rumour that was going. Mrs. Gill, in reply, received the following letter on Friday morning from Captain Bernard Tooke:– “I have just received your letter, and in reply I am sorry to have to tell you that your husband was killed in action during the attack on the German trenches on July 1st. I cannot say more than that he was an excellent soldier who died bravely while doing his duty. Please accept my deepest sympathy with you in your loss, the sadness of which I sincerely appreciate.”

Pte. Gill enlisted in April of last year, he going out to Egypt with his regiment, and later went to France, where he had been for only three or four months. He was 25 years of age, and was formerly employed by Messrs. John Dixon & Sons, bobbin manufacturers, Steeton. He was also formerly a playing member of the Silsden Association Football team. He leaves a widow and one child.

28 July 1916

SILSDEN’S GALLANT HEROES

Since the war commenced Silsden has lost fourteen of her gallant fighting sons while serving their King and Country. Their names are:–Pte. Ben Hodgson, Pte. Rhodes Spence, Pte. Isaac Wade, Pte. J. Faulkner, Pte. Nelson Holmes, Gunner Edward Lund, Pte. Ernest Hustwick, Pte. Wm. Gill, Pte. Harold Snoddin [Snowden] (killed on the railway while on guard duty in the country), Pte. Thomas Stanley Wrigglesworth, Pte. John Gill, Sergt. John Baldwin, Pte. Robt. Reed, and Pte. Herbert Harper.

04 August 1916

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SILSDEN HEROES

THE VICAR ON DUTY AND SACRIFICE

A special service in memory of four Silsden soldiers who have fallen in the great offensive was held at the Silsden Parish Church on Sunday morning last, the preacher being the Rev. E. E. Peters, M.A. (vicar). The church was crowded to its utmost capacity, and in addition to the relatives of the deceased soldiers, there were present the members of the Silsden Volunteer Training Corps, in charge of Platoon Commander W. A. Clough; Messrs. Frank Driver (Chairman), Wm. Basnett (Vice-chairman), Tom Fletcher, J. Tunnicliffe, H. Coates, F. Cowling, M. Clarkson, S. White, A. W. Wade, Joseph Hill, S. Foster (Clerk), T. Painter (Sanitary Inspector), and H. Longbottom, (Surveyor), representing the Silsden Urban District Council; Messrs. C. Driver, A. Spencer, T. Jackson, J. Baldwin, F. Crossley, Wm. Clarkson, J. Shackleton, W. Holmes, A. Tillotson, A. Wade, W. Raynor, T. Lambert, and J.M. Driver, and Albert Longbottom (secretaries), representing the Silsden Conservative Club; and Messrs. Fred Spencer, M. G. Spencer, L. Spencer, C. Spencer, E. Clarkson C. Clarkson, Smith Fry, H.H. Fry, W. Lee, A. Metcalfe, and A. Pickles, representing the Silsden Fire Brigade, of which Sergt John Baldwin, one of the fallen heroes, was a member. Mr. William Moore also attended in his capacity as Postmaster.

The Vicar took his text from the 22nd chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, 20th verse; ‘This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you’. The vicar said he had taken his line of thought for the service from the beautiful legend of the ‘Holy Grail’, which was most familiar to them in the modern form in Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King’, and on which a sermon was preached in Westminster Abbey by Dr. J. H. Skriene. He did not suppose they could miss the meaning of that old story. It was very plain what that legend meant, and the truth that was wrapped up in it. When things went ill with the world, then it was that the vision of the Passion of Christ was sacrifice which came to save men once more. The cup of sacrifice was at our lips, and had been for the last two years. The young men who had been slain by the sword knew it well; they had drunk of the cup. The wives and mothers, they too had drunk in the bitter dregs of that cup of sacrifice. They were met that morning to pay their loving tribute of affection and respect to the memory of their young men – Sergeant John Baldwin, Private Thomas Stanley Wrigglesworth and Private Herbert Harper, of that distinguished battalion, the 9th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, and also to the memory of Pte. John Gill, of a Bradford Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. Those men saw that vision of sacrifice in the very earliest days of the war, and they were not disobedient to that heavenly vision. He expected almost everybody in the church knew those men well. He had had the great happiness of meeting and talking with two of them – Sergt. Baldwin when he was at home on leave about Christmas time, and a little later Pte. H. Harper, when he brought his little child to be received in the body of Christ’s Church. He was, and had no doubt all of them had been, impressed by the cheerfulness of those men. They had been through terrible privations, they had seen some very hard fighting, but there were no grumbles, and there was that spirit of delightful and wonderful cheerfulness, which was doing so much to help us to win the war. They went without any ostentation. If they could imagine that those men were looking down upon them that morning, they would be surprised to hear what was being said of them, because they went with no ostentatious desires. They would tell them that they simply did their duty, which as men they were bound to do. Those men saw the heavenly vision, and they drank of the cup. Now, he believed, they were at rest; they had passed through much tribulation. They were now numbered with that blessed company who had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Two of them were married – Pte. Harper and Pte. Gill – and had left little sons whom they hoped it would be the will of God to raise up to carry on for generations to come the noble memories of their brave fathers, and their mothers were today drinking of that cup, which was still bitter to the taste. They had their sympathy, and the presence of that large congregation was proof that they felt with them in their terrible loss and affliction. There was a solemn and tremendous question he wanted each one of them to ask themselves. Those four splendid young men in the prime of life, in all the vigour of manly strength, had given their lives for us all. Let them ask themselves, “Am I worth it?” It was for them to show themselves as far as they could by the grace of God that they were worth it. They must first of all finish the work which those men had begun. There might be some amongst them who trembled when the cup of sacrifice reached them, who might think there had been enough bloodshed and enough horror. Some weaker, and perhaps more mean-spirited ones, would fear of their turn to come drink of that cup, and would hush it away and say, “Let us have peace; let us bring this war to an end.” To do so would be a bitterly and grossly shameful betrayal of those gallant men. They had done their bit, and they would say, “You do yours, you take the torch from our dying hand, carry it on and bring it to the goal”. Another thing, it was up to them to see that a fitting provision was made for the dependants of those men who had gone from them, and that he believed would be done. One more thing, and that is we must make a happier and better England. We do not want an England such as England was before the war. Think of the unity; think of the brotherhood – the brotherhood created by the blood of heroes. Men of all classes and creeds were fighting together in the trenches, and shoulder-to-shoulder they were advancing against a terrible enemy. How awful it would be if we went back to the time of strife and disunion, which so marred our life before the war. We wanted an England purified: an England strengthened, and where the ideals are duty and sacrifice. How was that to be brought about? Was it to be brought about by mean devices and by laws? They might do something, but they could do very little. There were many earnest people who really thought before the war that internationalism and various other schemes were going to eliminate war and make the horrors that we are now experiencing impossible. The futility of such an idea had been seen.

During the service, the hymns, ‘God the all terrible King who ordained’, ‘On the resurrection morning,’ ‘O God our help in ages past,’ and ‘For all the saints who from their labours rest,’ were sung. At the close of the service the ‘Last Post’ was sounded by the buglers of the Silsden Volunteer Training Corps. Mr. Herbert Cooper officiated at the organ. A collection was taken on behalf of the West Riding Fund for providing comforts for the soldiers and realised £6 5s. 10½d.

05 January 1917

INTERCESSION AND MEMORIAL SERVICE AT SILSDEN – Impressive Sermon by Rev. W. Dickinson.

An intercession and memorial service for the fallen heroes in the war was held at the Silsden Primitive Methodist Church on Sunday evening last. There was a large congregation, and the officiating minister was Rev. Wm. Dickinson (pastor). During the service the hymns 'O God our help in ages past,’ ‘Lord God of hosts, Whose Almighty hand,’ ‘God the all terrible! King Who ordainest,’ and ‘When wilt Thou save the people’ were sung. Miss Clara Fortune also ably sang the solo ‘O rest in the Lord,’ and at the close of the service the organist (Mr. Bernard Longbottom) played the ‘Dead march’ in ‘Saul,’ and the National Anthem was sung.

WAR A HARMFUL THING

Preaching from the text Psalm 46, 9th verse, ‘He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth,’ Mr. Dickinson said it seemed almost superfluous to say in this sad day in which we lived that war was a serious and harmful thing. It was, however, a great outstanding fact. When they looked at the expense even in times of peace, when nations made preparations for war, it was even then a great expense, but in days of actual warfare as to-day, when the nation was spending at least £5,000,000 a day, then it was that they were reminded that war was a serious thing from a financial point of view. They tried to have dreams or visions as to what would have been done with that money for philanthropic purposes and for the social amelioration of the people of this country, but the country had put those dreams or visions in the back ground. Then we had the cruelty of it, and the passions that it excited. It marched to hunger and thirst and wounds and death. Then we had the bereavements. Children were made orphans, women were made widows, and parents mourned over children and many were left childless. Then we also had the deplorable feelings produced by war, feeling of revenge, feelings that produced quarrelsomeness, a desire for power and an unholy lust of ambition. That was seen by the works of the great Napoleon, and also by the Kaiser and the Prussian War Lords. The question that now forced itself to the front was ‘Is all war morally wrong?’ We had a very high ideal, and we believed that war was all wrong. They read in the Old Book that David was not allowed to build the temple of the Lord because his hands had been stained by blood, and he was spoken of as a man of war. But, in these days we had to look at actual facts. What was the actual state today? When one side would prepare for war and was determined to declare war, what then could we do? That great poet in Russia called Tolstoy preached the doctrine of being passive, but when we came to think of it, could we be passive? If our homes were to be destroyed and our wives and children to be taken from us, could we be passive? Did it not arouse within us that spirit of manhood that we must assert ourselves and that we must fight? If we were not prepared to do that, all he could think was that we were cowards. They ought to bury their heads and be ashamed of themselves. In days of peace with one breath they would denounce all war, and yet in the very next breath they would ask the question why the Congo atrocities were not stopped even if force were necessary. To-day they looked upon a devastated Serbia, Montenegro, Belgium, and alas Roumania, and they came to the conclusion that there were worse things than war – Armenia and the Congo, and the slavery of the South Americans; and what would have been the slavery of Europe had it not been for the call to arms in a cause that was just and righteous?

A JUST AND RIGHTEOUS CAUSE

If it were not for that conviction that the cause for which they were at war was just and righteous, many of them would have failed to preach, to pray, or to look to God. But, it was that which gave them strength that they looked to him Who was the present help and refuge in their trouble. In their fight against war whom should they attack? Often in the past the attack was made upon the soldier. They could not do that to-day as far as this country war concerned. They had a great civilian army, and they were fighting for freedom, for righteousness, and for justice. They never wanted to be soldiers, they never wanted to fight, but the call had come and they could do no other. Who made war, and why should there be war? Not the soldier. In the days that were gone, it was more the civilian than the soldier, the civilian because he was represented by his Parliament and that Parliament as the representative of the civilian often made war, because the lust for power and the lust for gold had got hold of them. Then in the commercial world, amongst what was known as the ruling classes, there was generally speaking a disposition to make war because there was the old saying that trade followed the flag. The soldier fought because he was ordered to do. It was neither Roberts, Kitchener, nor Buller who made the Boer War. If anybody made it, it was Kruger, Milner, and Chamberlain, and it was made because they had greed for power, and an unholy ambition and wish for gold. If they went back through the pages of history, they would find that that was the source of war as far as this country was concerned. He had come to the conclusion that the man who shouted for war had an axe to grind. The man who shouted for war ought to be made to go and face the music and not to send others. What did soldiery stand for? Generally speaking it stood for the aggressive, the quarrelsome, the brute force. They could not say that of the civilian army that had been raised by this country. They were not aggressive, they were not quarrelsome, and neither could they say that they were asserting brute force. He was sorry to have to say it of the Central Powers where conscription had been reigning for so many years. It was the brute force and the aggressive power that they would have to abolish. But when they had said that, they were bound to come to the conclusion that

SOLDIERY HAS ITS GOOD POINTS

The soldier side by side with the doctor stood to give his life for his country and that was a great deal. He would advise anyone to pause before he sneered at a soldier. He stood between them and the enemy, and if it had not been for the brave men who had stood thus, where would they have been to-day? They had no words too high in their commendation and admiration and love for the civilians of this Empire, who had stood between them and the enemy in this time of crisis. The question came to each one of them what was their position and what were they doing in the national crisis that was before them, and still after all they came to the conclusion that the soldier's life as they saw it to-day was a regrettable necessity, that all those brave men should have to shoulder the musket and defend our shores and fight for the freedom, righteousness, and justice of a cause that none of them disputed. They regretted in this the 20th century that such a thing should have happened. It ought not to have come to pass, and it never would have come to pass if the great Central Powers of Europe had taken heed of the sayings of Christ, and had seen His crucified hands instead of the mailed fist, and if they had listened to His beatitudes instead of the philosophy of the German teachers. How were they to lessen those evils? They must attack the root, that lust for power, that quarrelsome spirit, and that unholy ambition that had dominated the great Central Powers. How were they to attack the root? By educating the people for peace at the proper time, and that perhaps was not just yet. It was an easy matter to give descriptions of the horrors of war, to speak of its abominations, and even to denounce statesmen and people who sanctioned war, but how few people there were who searched for methods by means of which war could be put down and destroyed. When the history of the war and the part which the British Empire had taken in it came to be written – he was not a prophet or the son of a prophet – he ventured to say that the writer would pay a fine testimony to the ex-Foreign Minister of this country (Sir Edward Grey) who night and day at the beginning or before the declaration of war strove with all the brain power he had, and with every ounce of strength, he could put in, to avert this great catastrophe. If to-day he was in the back ground, he would looked upon as one of the finest statesmen this country ever had. On what lines were they to educate people for peace? There was a form of Government not only to arrest this demon war, but to bind him in chains. What was it? A cosmopolitan administration or a great Federal Government of the world. They might be dreamers, but certainly there would come a day either in London, Paris, or New York, when there would be a great Federal Government, and that Government would help them to the day when wars would cease.

THE CHURCH'S ROLL OF HONOUR

Proceeding, Mr. Dickinson said he was sure he was voicing the feelings of all present when he said they sympathised very deeply with the families of Pte. Percy Kellett and Lance-Corpl. T.C. Green, both of whom were in hospital suffering from wounds. They prayed for their speedy recovery, and also that their parents and relatives might he comforted. Then they had Ptes. Bernard Locker and Gannett Longbottom, who were reported as missing, and it was hoped that before long good news would be heard of them. They had to add two other names – Pte. Dan Faulkner and Gunner W.H. Sutcliffe, both of whom had been killed in action – to their list of fallen who had been intimately associated with their church and Sunday-school. Mr. Dickinson then read a list of Silsden soldiers who had died serving their King and Country. They were as follows:– Pte. Harold Snoddin [Snowden], Pte. B. Hodgson, Pte. I. Wade, Pte. R. Spence, Pte. E. Hustwick, Gunner E. Lund, Pte. W. Gill, Pte. J. Faulkner, Pte. N. Holmes, Pte. R. Read, Pte. J. Gill, Pte. S. Wrigglesworth, Sergt. J. Baldwin, Sergt. R. Hill, Pte. Wm. Richmond, Pte. W.H. Teale, Corpl. F. Taylor, Pte. H. Harper, Pte. D. Faulkner, and Gunner W.H.Sutcliffe.

Mr. Dickinson also read the church's roll of honour, which comprised 110 names.